You are here:

Inside This Issue

ARTICLE | May 3, 2013

This issue of Cadmus marks a significant shift in emphasis from analysis of problems to the search for viable comprehensive solutions. The need for a new paradigm for global development capable of addressing the pressing challenges and opportunities of the 21st century was a main conclusion of the World Academy’s conference in Trieste in March 2013 and it is the central theme of WAAS conferences at Palais des Nations in Geneva and Library of Alexandria in June 2013.

The articles in this issue examine the philosophical, political, legal, economic, social, psychological, cultural and ecological dimensions of the subject. They draw on insights from the Trieste Forum to identify elements of a theoretical and practical approach to development based on the primacy of Human and Social Capital. These elements include the key role of human choice in the formation of public policy and social institutions; the central importance of universal values and human rights in development theory; the catalytic role of the individual as original thinker, entrepreneur and social innovator; the need for rectifying serious deficiencies in the functioning of democratic institutions; the psychological basis for the institution of money as a social organization; and the concept of society as a complex social network.

We hope you will enjoy this issue and contribute to the further development of a new paradigm.